The 13th Floor

[mmcnealy]

tashadandelion has asked for poetry, so poetry she shall receive.

The 13th Floor

September 18, 2002

I can feel the energy whip around the corner
and come to a full stop
when I walk through the door.
It has been chasing its tail for days on end
Without the break of a meeting

Its hungry.
But I have nothing to feed it
I come empty handed, to remember the floor that was

My home away from home
My life,
My love,
My prison.

I hear voices and look,
but it is only the voices of meetings past walking by
I am alone, my co-workers are gone

The 13th floor is as still as a tomb
My fellow slaves flown to new jobs, lives
or Connecticut

I intended to go.
Seattle, I reasoned, had had its day.
My life was starting someplace new, and not here
How wrong I was!

In the end I stayed for a new life
and shed the old.
Good jobs are easier to find than good men

I walk the floor, passing the desks
where I built my career
made enemies
and fell in love.

I pause, the energy panting at my feet.
It wants to run again,
be important!
Be the cradle of decisions!
But its not to be, I tell it.
Its day has come and gone with GE

I walk on, past the door I intended to take
Old habits die hard and my feet have memory

I stand in the elevator bay
and wait for the box that will take me to my new cell

Wondering what will happen come December..
Whether my good behavior will be communicated to a longer sentence
or will I be released to fly away?

To a new life and a new pair of shackles
Tied to the job by love and fear
I wait to be un-needed

Comments

[attack-laurel.livejournal.com]

Lovely. Not enough people appreciate poetry. It's like reading a picture.

[mmcnealy.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I like poetry that tells stories. I should write more, its good therapy to get out the thoughts that I can't say.

[alienor.livejournal.com]

[I wish I could get the formatting right on LJ, but its implementation of HTML isn't what I'd like it to be]

You can turn off autoformatting for this entry and then do your own html.

[mmcnealy.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I always wondered what that check box did. :)

[mmcnealy.livejournal.com]

I found my poetry notebook
from 5 years ago
My muse was sitting next to it

Hello, said she
Shall we remember the past
or commerate the present?

A bit of both
said I
and wrote a poem
or three

---

I love free verse. I can write poetry and not worry about rythme or meter. I'd forgotten how much I loved writing it. Thank you!